Frolfer’s best friend: The midrange disc. Even though some of the holes — 400-foot holes 1 and 9; 300-foot holes 3, 6 and 7 — are driver distance, the path to each disc is straight enough that a strong, level throw with a midranger should get you in position to birdie. Just watch out for the trees. And the pedestrians.

The year was 2005, and Pat McDonald, the University of Northern Colorado's manager of landscaping and grounds, was in the middle of installing a disc golf course on campus.

It's a nine-hole course. That meant driving a tractor to nine spots, drilling nine shafts with a three-point auger, anchoring nine posts deep into the earth and setting them all with concrete.

And somewhere along the way to nine, Pat McDonald looked back on his work and saw that people were playing it before he was even done. All he thought was, "Are you kidding me?"

Until then, McDonald's idea of golf was, well, golf. But UNC's course is one of many that have sprung up on college campuses all over the country, from Red Rocks Community College in Arvada to Cornell.

For those who aren't familiar, disc golf is similar to regular golf in many ways. UNC's nine-hole course is a par-27, par-3 at each hole. There are discs built for driving, midrange and putting, just like regular golf.

Drivers can be designed for maximum distance or control over the fairway, have sharp, aerodynamic edges and fly at the fastest speeds.

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They often curve back in either direction, depending on the thrower's release and the plane of the throw.

Midrange discs are less aerodynamic, with more rounded edges, but fly almost perfectly straight and can be thrown long distances.

They're the easiest all-around discs, and are sometimes used for driving.

Putting discs, like their equivalent clubs, don't afford much speed or power but give their user maximum control.

You can play on UNC's campus now because of a student who approached McDonald with the idea of building one on campus, which was the first time McDonald heard of disc golf.

He doesn't recall the student's name, and they lost contact after the student graduated. But McDonald took the proposal to Scott Schuttenberg, the school's director of campus recreation, and the two tweaked the student's plan to make it more "user-friendly," as McDonald put it.

The student's layout crossed too many walking paths, and Schuttenberg and McDonald wanted to make it harder. They came up with a layout that crossed as few sidewalks as possible, while lining up tee boxes and holes such that there were enough trees in the way to provide obstacles.

The city of Greeley donated the holes to UNC. It was revamping some of its parks at the time, McDonald said, and as part of that were getting rid of a disc golf course.

UNC said yes, and McDonald and Schutenberg said that the course has surged in popularity since they built it.

The university doesn't track how many people play the course or how they score, Shuttenberg said.

The only records are the signatures on the baskets from players who shot holes-in-one. But McDonald said there's one way his team knows that the course has gotten more popular.

"We're retrieving a lot more discs from the trees," McDonald said.

UNC takes lost discs to its rec center and rents them out to players. McDonald said they have about 10-15 at any given time.

Despite the course's heavy usage, Shuttenberg said the campus has never received a complaint about a pedestrian being hit with a disc.

There are no safety warnings, just an expectation that players are patient and courteous, and that pedestrians are aware of their surroundings.

McDonald also said he's received compliments from university staff and athletics coaches, who he said play the course as a teambuilding exercise.

Even so, there are no plans to expand the course beyond nine holes. McDonald said the university intentionally put the course on west campus because it was newer and closer to Nottingham Field and Butler-Hancock.

UNC doesn't want nine holes on central campus to "intrude on the tranquility" of the older part of campus, near the music and theatre buildings, as McDonald put it.

"It just doesn't fit in that space," he said.

But maybe the most interesting thing about UNC's course is the man who built it has never played it.

McDonald said his kids play disc golf, but he never has.

"Maybe someday," he said.

The Course

Holes: 9

Par: 27 (each hole is par-3)

Total distance: 2,625 feet

Frolfer’s best friend: The midrange disc. Even though some of the holes — 400-foot holes 1 and 9; 300-foot holes 3, 6 and 7 — are driver distance, the path to each disc is straight enough that a strong, level throw with a midranger should get you in position to birdie. Just watch out for the trees. And the pedestrians.